Why I Left the Democrats

How I came to break up with my political party.

I was born to liberal parents who rebuilt our local Democratic Party and helped the district elect its first member of Congress from that party in ages. I was phone-banking for Planned Parenthood by puberty. My first job out of school was working to defeat Jesse Helms.

 Since then, I’ve spent most of my years in Washington, DC, lobbying Democrats to do the same kinds of things I championed in my youth. I was with the Democratic Party for thirty years, and can safely say that it abandoned our relationship – not the other way around.

I was an understanding partner, never expecting too much from the Democrats. Would they always give the Pentagon more respect that it warranted? Of course. Would they occasionally distance themselves from unions and other political partners to look independent? Certainly. Did they have constituents more conservative than me? No question. These were the things you accept in a relationship. I say this to emphasize an important fact: I did not leave the Democratic Party because it could have tried harder, or because it failed to work miracles. I left because there was no relationship left. They walked out. They cheated on me. They lied to me. And they took me for granted.

It all started with the cheating. Before long, enough Democrats could be counted on to side with the Mr. Hyde party in order to pass awful legislation or kill anything good. This was true whatever the balance of power in Congress. They rolled over on my priorities time and time again, while regularly putting out for right-wing causes and wealthy johns looking to diversify their congressional escorts. They were complicit in voting for the U.S.A. Patriot Act, the retroactive legalization of domestic spying, bankruptcy reform, and even the rejection of an amendment to that last bill that would have capped interest rates at 30 percent!